How much does a pigeon eat? And what are you saving a farmer when you shoot a pigeon? While in his pigeon hide, shooting in Kent, Andy Crow finds out – and turns the answer into a homeschooling maths question that any keen shooter will be keen to answer.
Here’s the full quiz – or you can do it online here on Google Forms.
1. How much grain in kilograms does this pigeon eat in one week?
2. How much grain in kilograms does this pigeon eat in two weeks?
3. How much grain in kilograms does this pigeon eat in six weeks?
4. What do 100 pigeons cost the farmer in one week?
5. What do 200 pigeons cost the farmer in two weeks?
6. What do 500 pigeons cost the farmer in six weeks?
7. What do 100 pigeons cost the farmer in one week?
8. What do 200 pigeons cost the farmer in two weeks?
9. What do 500 pigeons cost the farmer in three weeks?
10. How much will those 2,000 pigeons cost him?
11. Bonus question: what percentage of the cash value of his crop will he lose to pigeons (to two decimal places)?
(answers at the bottom)
Andy is sponsored by:
Blaser
Jack Pyke
Click here for all our films with Andy
1. 46 (grams of wheat) x 7 (days) ÷ 1,000 (a kilogram) = 0.322kg
2. 46 x 14 ÷ 1,000 = 0.644kg
3. 46 x 42 ÷ 1,000 = 1.932kg
4. 50 (grams) x 100 (pigeons) x 7 days ÷ 1,000,000 (a tonne) x 240 (£s) = £8.40
5. 50 x 200 x 14 ÷ 1,000,000 x 240 = £33.60
6. 50 x 500 x 42 ÷ 1,000,000 x 240 = £252
7. 50 (grams) x 100 (pigeons) x 7 days ÷ 1,000,000 (a tonne) x 400 (£s) = £14
8. 50 x 200 x 14 ÷ 1,000,000 x 400 = £56
9. 50 x 500 x 21 ÷ 1,000,000 x 400 = £210
10. This is the tricky question.
The farmer will expect to make:
10 (hectares of wheat) x 7 (tonnes of wheat per hectare) x £220 (per tonne of wheat) = £15,400
10 (hectares of peas) x 3 (tonnes of peas per hectare) x £240 (per tonne of peas) = £7,200
The pigeons will eat:
46 (grams of wheat) x 2000 (pigeons) x 42 days ÷ 1,000,000 (a tonne) x 220 (£s) = £850.08
50 (grams of peas) x 2000 (pigeons) x 42 days ÷ 1,000,000 (a tonne) x 240 (£s) = £1,008
The pigeons will eat £850.08 + £1,008 = £1,858.08-worth of his crops.
11. He expects to make £15,400 + £7,200 = £22,600, so he will lose £1,858.08 ÷ £22,600 x 100 (%) = 8.22% of his crops’ cash value to pigeons
